Ma Kai, Vice Premier of the State Council attended and delivered a speech at the first APAC Ministerial Conference on Civil Aviation, held on January 31st in Beijing.

In his speech, Ma Kai pointed out, Chinese President Xi Jinping proposed the Belt and Road initiative, which received overwhelming response and support from the countries and regions along the Belt and Road as well as from the international community, and brought tremendous opportunities for better connectivity among countries in the APAC region and even around the world. China stands ready to conduct policy-wise communication, support smooth trade and financial flow and make closer people-to-people contact with countries along the Belt and Road, and create a new platform for international cooperation, thus fueling common development.

Ma Kai stressed that aviation has unique advantage in enhancing connectivity. APAC countries should: continue to strengthen their cooperation in infrastructure construction, in a bid to better harmonize their infrastructure construction plans and technical standard systems related to airports, air traffic control and routes, and jointly promote the establishment of big regional air corridors; further liberalize regional aviation market by adopting a more positive, open and flexible aviation policy, strengthening coordination in transport policies and constantly optimizing flight route network; fully implement the No Country Left Behind initiative by learning from and helping each other, in a bid to make more countries and their people enjoy the fruits of civil aviation development, and create conditions for the realization of regional economic development in a more open, inclusive and balanced manner, bringing benefits to all parties involved.